Working in Sales is like driving a cab 🚕.

Here’s what I learned from over 100+ sales calls 👇


Exactly 2 years ago, in August 2020, I took my first step into the “startup” world. I was frustrated with my college entrance exams being postponed again and again due to Covid, so I decided to try something new.

I applied for multiple freelance jobs all over the internet. I got into an ed-tech company, where my job was to call potential customers and sell courses. (They were basically school-level Maths courses)

I had no idea about what was to be done. Anyway, I jumped into it.

The First 10-20 calls were difficult. A wake-up call for me.

I experienced everything right from people disconnecting calls in between to abusing. Of course, many of them were nice and kind enough to listen to whatever I could manage to say.

But I had nothing to show in terms of results.

Next, I started writing scripts. Really long ones. As soon as I heard “Hello 👋” from the other side, I rushed through whatever I had written in my notebook.

All that just for a “goodbye 👋” from the other end. Sometimes not even that.

I thought the problem was with the length of the script.

So I wrote a short script this time. This too didn’t work.

But the I got a crucial insight:

After about 30 calls, I was well-versed with my script. My knowledge about the product strengthened.

I was no longer worried about people not responding well or abusing me, in fact, I started having fun and sometimes played along with them.

Although these calls were useless from the company’s perspective as they led to no sales, I observed that the calls where I played along, lasted longer.

That’s when I realized, that instead of delivering a speech, I should be having a conversation.

After a short introduction, I started asking them questions about the problems they were facing. In my case, I was conversing with the parents. So my questions revolved around their child’s studies, school, etc.

Interestingly, they had the solutions ready too. All I had to do was to place the product as the “bridge between the solution and the problem”

Basically, all I had to do was to drive an Ola Cab.

When you book a cab, you already know the destination. The only job of the cab is to reach where you are, and take you to where you want to go in a safe and happy manner. That is exactly what sales is about.

A sales executive has to reach where the customer is. Understand his/her problems and concerns. This will give an idea of where the customer wants to go. The next step is using the product/service being sold, as a vehicle to transport the customer to their destination, their goals.

Earlier, I thought sales was about speaking. But what I learned eventually was totally the opposite. Good sales is about listening👂.

What is sales according to you?